


Fox behind your ear

by usedupshiver



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fox Tony, M/M, Misunderstandings, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Secrets, Well Loki is human and Tony isn't..., Were-Creatures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 22:27:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8640574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usedupshiver/pseuds/usedupshiver
Summary: Even Tony could admit that right here, right now, in this very moment, at 11.36 PM on this particular Friday night, he had other problems. More concrete, pressing, urgent, potentially awful and awkwardly embarrassing problems, than teasing out exactly why his last relationship had gone to shit. Because on this particular night, he was supposed to - very gently and kindly and lovingly - have kicked Loki out before he went to bed.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I found the prompt ’I’m a werewolf but I’m embarrassed to tell you because my wolf form is more like a chihuahua’ in [this AU list](http://usedupshiver.tumblr.com/post/124851633537/oddly-specific-aus-i-need) and tweaked it.
> 
> Title comes from a Swedish proverb, saying that someone who "has a fox behind their ear" is sly and unreliable. I'll leave it up to you to decide if that's true about this Tony or not...

Later, Tony would blame it all on Rhodey. Or he'd try to, at least. Because his best friend insisted on living in places with the most ridiculous time differences, and Tony had been forced to get up so early it had to be criminal, just to be able to wish Rhodes a happy birthday yesterday. Although - technically - he hadn't _gotten up_ so much as he'd _never gone to bed_.

Anyway, it wouldn't have been a problem if he had been allowed to do what any normal person would do, which was go to bed after the phone call. But no, then Pepper had shown up at his door and insisted he had an important meeting. So really, it was her fault, but they had broken up so recently that he still couldn't deal with blaming her for anything.

Especially not when the reason he had broken up with her, was sleeping in his bed right now. With Tony draped half on top of him, drooling on his pectoral, no less.

It still made him feel like an asshole when he got to wake up like this, and be happy about it, even though Rhodey had tried to tell him repeatedly, and most recently the criminally early morning the day before, that Tony - again, _technically_ \- had done nothing wrong. Tony couldn't quite believe that, and felt sure that the blame was all on him.

Rhodey had given a staticky sigh through the bad reception. "You have an unhealthy obsession with blame, Tones. Have you even considered that there might not _be_ any blame to place, in this situation?"

Tony couldn't believe that, either.

He had dumped Pepper. Obviously, it was his fault.

But even Tony could admit that right here, right now, in this very moment, at 11.36 PM on this particular Friday night, he had other problems. More concrete, pressing, urgent, potentially awful and awkwardly embarrassing problems, than teasing out exactly why his last relationship had gone to shit. Because on this particular night, he was supposed to - very gently and kindly and _lovingly_ \- have kicked Loki out before he went to bed.

Only he fucking _hadn't_ , because... Well, because fucking, to be honest. 

Loki was good at that, in Tony's defense. So very, very good. He had the most perfect dick, and damn, he knew how to use it, and by the time he had been all done with Tony's ass, anything that was not about making happy, satisfied noises and practically melting into the mattress, just hadn't been a priority in Tony's blown mind. So when he should have gathered himself up and told Loki thanks for the A+ fuck but you really need to leave now, he had rolled over and fallen asleep instead.

This was bad. So very, very bad.

The upside to this situation was that he still had almost 25 minutes to get Loki out of his bed and his house.

The downside was, well, _everything else_. How the hell was he supposed to get away with this?

Tony rubbed the drool off the corner of his mouth and then slowly, but not too carefully, wriggled himself off Loki's chest. As he had hoped, the movement made Loki stir out of sleep so that by the time Tony was pushing himself up sitting on the bed and reaching for the lightswitch, the blanket Loki had dragged over them now pooled around their hips, Loki was blinking up at him. Then squinting when the bedside lamp came on.

Loki's face was soft with lingering sleep, his black hair a tangled nest in that impressive way it always got while he slept, and there was a livid lovebite standing out sharply against the pale skin by his clavicle. Tony wanted more than anything to keep him right here, looking just like that. But he couldn't.

"You should go home." It physically pained Tony to say it, and the roughness in his voice wasn't just from sleep.

That wiped any sign of sleepiness off Loki's gorgeous face. His eyes were still narrow against the light, but the look in them turned sharp. "What?" His voice was gravelly too, flat, and not at all amused.

"Um, yeah, sorry", Tony muttered, squirming around so he could throw his legs over the edge of the bed. He used standing up as an excuse not to look at Loki's face. "I should have told you sooner, but you can't spend the night."

"And why is that?" Loki didn't sound impressed with Tony's actions, at all.

Busying himself with pulling on and meticulously tying the drawsting on a pair of pajama pants he would soon need to take off again, Tony considered carefully what he should say. He really did. The problem was that when he turned back to face Loki - who still hadn't moved an inch from his spot on the bed, damnit! - whatever he might have prepared just blanked and he had nothing. So Tony blurted out the first thing that for some reason came to mind.

"Pepper will be here in the morning."

Oh, god, why?

Loki's mouth flattened out into a thin, miserable line. "On a Saturday?"

"Um..."

 _Now_ Loki was throwing the blanket aside and getting off the bed. But somehow Tony didn't get the feeling he was about to quickly and painlessly leave the building. No, he wasn't even getting dressed, he was standing there, distractingly naked, and glaring at Tony across the rumpled bed.

"You didn't break up with her after all, did you." It wasn't really a question, the tone too dull and unsurprised.

Tony startled. The pain of those words was like a sharp slap and he jerked back from it, as if it had been a physical thing. "No!" It was almost a shout. Then he gasped and tried again. "I mean, yes! I did! That's not... it's not... personal? It's for work and I don't..."

Loki just stared at him, waiting.

All Tony could do was swallow. "You should go home", he repeated at last, helplessly.

Loki stared a little while longer. "That's it?", he finally asked. "That's all you have to say to me?"

There was another silence, one Tony knew he should be filling with words, reassurances, but he couldn't. He had nothing. There was just more lies he could tangle himself into and this wasn't the time. Whatever he did now would turn into a mess, but he would just have to deal with that later.

"Fine." Loki threw his hands up in a 'fuck it!' kind of gesture, and turned to snatch up his black jeans, pulling them on without bothering to look for his underwear first. When he was done with the buttons and reached for his sweater, he threw Tony a look that shifted wildly between anger and hurt. "Just so we're clear, when I walk out that door, I'm not coming back."

Tony heard himself make a wounded little noise. "Loki, please..."

"Don't", Loki snapped, voice almost breaking. He clenched his jaw and bent to shove his feet into socks and shoes, before facing Tony again, body weight already shifting toward the bedroom door. "I was very clear. People might think I don't have any pride, but I do, and I _told you_ , Tony, I'm not going to be anyone's thing on the side. Not even yours." Now his voice _was_ breaking, and that was the shine of a tear as it trickled down his pale cheek. "You should have just been honest with me."

And then he was turning away for real, and Tony knew that Loki was full of shit at times, but this was not one of those times. If he left now, he would never, ever come back.

Tony couldn't let that happen.

So he did the only reasonable thing, and threw himself across the room, more or less tackling Loki into the door before he had the chance to open it, and clung to his stiff, resisting body like a limpet.

"Stop", Tony wheezed, breath knocked out of him on impact. His face smushed into the side of Loki's bicep. "Don't. That's not what's going on. At all. Please, just..."

With a huff, Loki twisted in his arms, when he realized there was no more words coming. He grabbed Tony's shoulder in an almost painfully hard grip with one hand, and the long, always so surprisingly strong fingers of his other curled around Tony's jaw, forcing his head back until their eyes met. "Just what, Tony?" His voice was surprisingly soft, vulnerable. "What else could make you throw me out of bed in the middle of the night?"

Tony winced. "I, um, can't actually tell you."

Loki's eyes darkned, and his hands dropped.

"But!" Tony scrabbled for Loki's hands, his arms, catching them, clutching Loki's wrists so hard it might leave bruises. "It's not what you think it's about. I swear. I did break up with Pepper. Four months ago", he hastened to add, before he realized that was another secret he'd been keeping.

Damn his mouth!

Loki's eyes flew wide, his lips parting a little in surprise from where they had been pursed tight in anger. "Four... _months_? But you only told me three weeks ago?"

"I know." Tony wilted with a sigh. He to let go of one of Loki's arms, to scrub the palm of his hand over his face. "I had to break it off, because..." He groaned. "Fuck it." Tony straightened up to look straight into Loki's hesitant face. "Because I was seriously falling in love with you, and I couldn't do that to her, or to you, and it was the only right thing, but I didn't want you to feel like you pushed me to do it because you _didn't_. And I didn't want to rush you into this when I had _just_ ended things with her and I'm an _asshole_ any way you cut this and I'm so sorry but don't leave, because it's not what you think. Pepper and me, that was over before this got serious. And now there's just you. Okay? Just... just you."

The longer Tony's rambling confession carried on, the wider Loki's bright, green eyes grew. By the end, his hands came up to cup Tony's face, the touch much gentler this time. "Tony", he murmured, soothing. "You're not an asshole. You did everything you could to make things right, but you need to start telling me these things. And, for the record, I'm in love with you too", Loki added with a soft smile, leaning in to brush his lips over Tony's mouth, which was trembling now, with emotion and a tension that wasn't just about Loki and their sudden confessions.

Unable to help himself, Tony grasped the front of Loki's sweater even so, eagerly but unsteadily kissing up into his mouth. "God, you're amazing", he breathed.

"I keep telling you", Loki smirked into his lips, "just 'Loki' is fine."

"You're a dick."

"I thought you said I was amazing?"

"An amazing dick? That's true on so many levels."

"If you say so." Loki wrapped Tony up in his long arms now, tucked him to his chest, and started stroking his back with warm, steady motions.

For a moment, they were silent, still. Perfect.

Then Tony had to ruin things. All over. Because even with Loki's soothing patting, there was a shivering tension spreading through the muscles of his thighs and lower back, skin prickling, sweat starting to break out in a fine, chilling layer over his face, chest and shoulders. 

He was almost out of time.

"You still need to leave." Tony felt how rough his voice was, muttered into Loki's pectoral. "Right now. Please?"

Instead of shoving him away, Loki tightened his hold on Tony. And he must feel the way Tony was trembling and sweating against him. "Tony", he said, sounding honestly distressed now, "you're scaring me."

And that, right there, wasn't something Loki admitted to easily. Fuck, Tony really was an asshole. He squeezed his eyes shut tight against reality, and kept his face hidden by Loki's chest, unable to speak.

"Is this...?" He actually felt Loki swallow. "Is this about the drinking? You said you could quit."

Tony quickly shook his head, which made him nuzzle into Loki's soft sweater. "It's not that." He drew in a long, shaky breath and began disentangling himself from Loki, took a reluctant step back, and felt his hands clench into fists by his sides. "It'll be fine. I just need you to leave."

Loki gave him a long look. "Not if you can't give me at least some kind of reason."

Shuffling restlessly from foot to foot, crossing his arms over his chest, Tony glanced down at the floor, before giving Loki a pleading look. "Can't you just trust me?"

That made Loki give a snort. "Like you're trusting me right now?"

Which was _fair_ , but still...

A full-body shudder ran through Tony right then, and that was it, midnight had struck, and he was out of time. A whine lodged itself in his throat, and he bent forward around his clenched gut.

"Tony?" The startled exclamation warned him that Loki was about to reach for him, even before he saw a hint of motion.

With a twitch Tony jerked back. He couldn't let Loki touch him like this. So he kept backing away, not knowing where he was even going to go, until his back hit the sliding doors leading to the walk-in closet. With no better way out, Tony spun on his heel, threw himself inside the dark space, and pushed the door shut before crumbling to the floor.

Even when it felt like his body was trying to break itself apart, turn itself inside-out, the irony of hiding in the actual, literal closet was not entirely lost on him. Right now it just wasn't very funny.

When he slumped to the floor, his pajama pants had already started to pool around his legs at an alarming pace, and the noise of blood rushing through his ears was so loud he barely heard Loki calling his name, rapping on the flimsy closet door. But then it was suddenly all over. He was curled up, tangled in pants that no longer fit him, ears so sensitive that he even heard Loki's far too quick heartbeats.

"Tony? Goddamnit, answer me! Or I'm coming in anyway!" Not like the door was locked, or would resist a good kick even if it had been, so it was a very effective threat.

"Please don't!" Ugh, Tony hated talking like this. He could, and his voice even sounded the same, it just felt like some kind of Disney level ridiculousness, and he avoided it as much as he could. "I'm _fine_ , really, just give me a few days and I'll be back to normal, it's just.. um... kind of gross?" He gave a gusty sigh. "Please go home?"

"I always knew you're a little bit crazy", Loki muttered, "and usually it's in all the best ways. But if you think I'm leaving you right now, then you are _insane_." He actually gave a little growling noise, and god, that _did things_ to Tony right now. "Do you honestly think I care about anything gross?"

And, well, maybe he didn't, when Tony forced himself to think about it.

Actually, one of the very first times they had ever met had been in an alley behind a fancy hotel where Stark Industries had been hosting a Christmas party. Where Tony had gone so way, way overboard with the celebrations that Pepper hadn't spoken to him for almost a week. After she had more or less literally kicked him out to get some air, Loki had found him, throwing up behind some garbage cans. And instead of deciding he was a disgusting mess and leaving, Loki had held him through it, cleaned him up as much as he could with a cloth handkerchief from Loki's own pocket, and then taken Tony to an out-of-the-way diner to get him some water and food.

Somehow, Loki hadn't found all that to be a good reason to stay away.

More than anything, that had made Tony think that this guy was a keeper. Which was probably why his tired, drunk, and very affectionate self had given Loki his private number. And the rest had just... happened. He hadn't meant to fall in love. He just had.

This was of course something else _entirely_ , but maybe - just maybe - Loki deserved a chance to decide for himself about this mess, too.

Tony looked down at himself where he was sitting in the pool of his pajama pants, closed his eyes for a moment, and then sighed. Again. "Okay. Fine. Just... Remember that I love you, and even if you take one look at me and run, I'm not holding it against you."

"I'm not the running kind", Loki swore, full of conviction.

Tony wondered how long that would last in the face of Tony's otherness.

Then the moment of no return was past, because the sliding door was being moved aside, the familiar and spicy scent of Loki enveloped him like an embrace, and then there he was. Suddenly he was _huge_ , towering above Tony where he was curled up on the floor, and Tony felt his head instinctively sink even lower, glancing up at Loki from under bushy eyebrows, trying to make himself small and non-threatening.

(What a joke... as if he was ever _anything but_ small and non-threatening in this form.)

Loki's face was a long, blank mask of complete confusion. Then he looked around the closet, probably wondering where Tony had gone, before he blinked down at the critter by his feet again.

"Yeah, hi", Tony said, not taking nearly as much pleasure as he could have from seeing Loki's jaw actually drop in shock. That could have been a sight to treasure, if everything hadn't been so goddamn awful. "This would be the point where you run."

But of course, Loki being Loki, he didn't run. Instead he slowly, carefully, got down on his knees. He'd already gotten so close that he had to spread his legs around Tony's spot on the floor, so that he ended up in the V between Loki's thighs. Which was usually a great place to be. Now it made Tony crouch down even lower over the tangled mess of his pajama pants, but he kept his eyes on Loki's face. It was still marked by shock, but also hinting at curiosity, and something like amazement.

Tony would have sort of expected the curiosity. Not so much the amazement.

"Wow... Tony. This is..."

Tony tensed at the pause, wondering what was coming next. Weird? Awful? Horrible?

"Incredible."

...what?

"Can I touch you?" One of Loki's long, slim hands was already reaching for him, before the question was fully formed. But he let it hover above Tony while he waited for an answer.

Suspicious, Tony eyed him and his hand for a moment. "Do you _want to_?"

Loki blinked, surprised. "Of course I do! It's still you, and god, Tony, you're..." His face slowly split into a very wide, delighted smile. "You're _adorable_."

Now it was Tony's turn to blink. "What?" He couldn't hold the question back this time.

"You definitely are", Loki insisted, still with a smile.

Grumbling, Tony untangled himself from his pants, stood up and shook himself. He could at least face this with some form of dignity. "Weres aren't supposed to be adorable."

He'd never thought of himself like that, either. But maybe he could sort of see where Loki was coming from. Even standing up on all fours, Tony's face was just barely level with Loki's chest. The tips of his black-tipped, furry ears might reach Loki's chin, if he stretched. And on some level he guessed he was sort of... cute? It was just that he'd never been meant to be.

"Well, then you clearly have something to work on, because you're always adorable, and this is just more of the same." Loki's smile was smaller now, affectionate, and Tony had a hard time not believing what he was saying. Then Loki raised an eyebrow and wiggled his fingers in the air, reminding Tony of his wish to touch.

"Yeah", Tony said, suddenly almost breathless, and stepped a tiny bit closer into the angle between Loki's legs. "You can touch me, if you want to."

No-one had touched him in this form in _decades_ , not since his parents had passed away. His father never had, because he had considered Tony's were form a disgrace to the family name. The Starks were wolves, and always had been. But his mother had still loved him, vulpine form and all.

Loki was careful, his touch soft as he first settled his hand on Tony's wide forehead, between his large ears, and gently gave the back of his head and neck a stroke. Down to Tony's shoulders, where his fur was most intensely red, before turning more grayish closer to his hind legs and sides. His legs were black, as if he'd waded through soot, and his thick, bushy tail was mostly red, gray and brown, before the pure white tip.

"You're a were", Loki said slowly, as if to make sense of it to himself, while experimentally scratching behind one of Tony's ears, making the fox's eyelids droop in pleasure. "Why didn't you say?"

Reluctantly, Tony backed up slightly, just out of Loki's reach, and sat down. He couldn't have this conversation while Loki's clever fingers were turning him to a pile of happy mush. "I had no idea how", he started, fighting to meet Loki's eyes. He knew his own were at least the same brown shade as usual. "It's rare enough these days that it's weird. And I grew up hiding it. Howard was fine with me being a were, because those genes have always been strong in our family, but..." Tony faltered, not sure how to explain.

"It was the fox-form, wasn't it?" Loki guessed right at once anyway, of course.

Tony nodded, looking down at his almost dainty, black paws. "If I'd been a wolf, he would have been proud."

There came a hum from Loki, his eyebrows knitting together slightly above his long nose. Then he changed the subject, somewhat. "So, you're like this for three days?"

"During every full moon, yeah", Tony confirmed, relieved not to have to do the whole Family Drama Thing right now.

"What do you usually do?"

"Hide", Tony said, wrapping his tail around his feet. He suddenly realized that talking to Loki didn't feel as stupid as speaking as a fox usually did. "I schedule the cleaning staff to never come here when I'm shifted, and I mostly stay inside. Sometimes I go out in the garden, at night. Staying inside is boring in this form."

Loki hummed again, nodding, and looked a little less concerned for some reason. "So company would probably be good for you then?"

Ah, that's what he had been getting at...

"You don't have to stay", Tony quickly assured him. "This is weird, and I'm used to being alone. It's fine, really, I don't -"

"I know I don't have to", Loki cut him off. "I want to stay. And even more than that? I want to go back to sleep." He gave Tony a tired little smile.

"Oh, yeah, that's..." The mere mention of sleep made Tony feel exactly how tired and emotionally drained he was. Before he knew it, his jaws were tightening with the urge to yawn and he couldn't resist it. "...not a bad idea", he finished once he had closed his mouth back up, blinking at Loki.

Who was staring again. 

"That's a _lot_ of teeth", he muttered.

"Only ten more than I usually have", Tony shot back as he got to his feet and slunk around Loki, back out into the bedroom.

He trotted over to the bed, jumped up on it without any problem, and turned a few times in the center of the mess of sheets and blankets they had left behind, before he plopped himself down, curled up on top of it all. When Tony looked up, Loki was standing next to the bed, smiling fondly at him.

"How do you take up _more_ space like this?"

"Skill."

"Mhm, I bet."

Loki got his shoes and clothes back off, to Tony's surprise. He turned the lights off and slipped back in under the bits of blanket not folded up under Tony. He sighed, settled in, and then surprised Tony even more by curling an arm around his furry body, dragging him closer.

Tony knew he could fight it, or go with it.

It didn't take many seconds of hesitation before he chose the latter.

Eeling himself close, Tony stretched out along Loki's front, cold nose by his throat, whiskers making Loki squirm a little before he seemed to accept the tickling sensation, and stilled. Only one of his hands kept moving, where it was slowly stroking down Tony's long back in even, repeated motions.

Tony hadn't expected to be able to rest like this, but he was actually about to slip back into sleep when he heard Loki speak up again, a soft - but very amused - half-whisper in the dark room.

"Does this mean that in a few years, when you have even more of those pretty, gray hairs, I can call you my silver fox?"

"Don't you fucking dare."

But those warm, affectionate chuckles, and the fingers scratching deep into the scruff around his neck, might actually be worth the indignity of a nickname that awful.

And so, so much more.

**Author's Note:**

> (The first try to post this got bugged to hell and had to be deleted. Sorry about that...)


End file.
